Mar 17 2013

LOHAN hooks up with radio ham and top-flight rocketeer G7ALW

Vulture 2 Spaceplane - Image credit LOHAN

Vulture 2 Spaceplane – Image credit LOHAN

The Register reports that the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) team will be working with radio amateur Paul Shackleton G7ALW.

The report by Lester Haines says Paul G7ALW will be working on the Vulture 2 spaceplane.

Laying out his electronics credentials, Paul said he “designed, built and sold the TRAXA radio beacons  for several years, and there must be about 400 of them in circulation, from the USA to Oz”.

When he’s not earning a crust, Paul splits his free time between “geocaching, 4×4 green laning in my Defender, trying to build a L3 rocket, Ham Radio and watching the occasional episode of The Big Bang Theory“.

Read The Register story at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/03/15/lohan_rocketeer/

TRAXA 433.920 MHz radio beacons
http://www.radiometrix.com/files/additional/Traxa-Rocketry-Case-Study-Feb-05.pdf

LOHAN http://www.theregister.co.uk/Wrap/lohan/

Vulture 2 Spaceplane http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/31/vulture_2/

Mar 17 2013

FCC Guidance On Obtaining Licenses For Small Satellites

Image of a CubeSat in Space

Image of a CubeSat in Space

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a Public Notice to provide guidance concerning FCC licensing of spectrum for use by small satellites, including satellites that fall within the categories of pico-satellites, nano-satellites and cubesats.

The advent of such small satellite designs has brought with it dramatically lower launch costs, enabling a larger range of organizations to directly launch satellites. Institutions such as universities and research organizations that previously found it cost prohibitive to launch their own satellite can now participate in the exploration of space. Many of these participants may be unfamiliar with the spectrum licensing, scheduling and other requirements attendant on satellites. This Public Notice seeks to alert affected parties of these requirements and thus aid small satellite operators in the planning necessary for a successful launch operation.

Continue reading →

Mar 16 2013

NASA EDGE – CubeSat Launch Initiative

NASA EDGE talks to NASA about how they’re helping students and professionals launch their own mini satellites known as CubeSats. The CubeSat Launch Initiative provides new opportunities for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics by helping people design, launch and collect data.

Watch NASA EDGE CubeSat Launch Initiative

Mar 16 2013

ESTCube-1 Tether Satellite hopes for Spring launch

Artists impression of ESTCube-1 in space - Image credit University of Tartu

Artists impression of ESTCube-1 in space – Image credit University of Tartu

Estonia’s first CubeSat ESTCube-1, amateur radio callsign ES5E/S, is planning to launch from Kourou in the Caribbean in the Spring on an ESA VEGA rocket.

Built by students at the University of Tartu ESTCube-1 the main mission of the satellite is to test electric solar wind sail technology, a novel space propulsion technology that could revolutionalize transportation within the solar system. It will deploy a 10 meter conductive electrodynamic tether and the force interacting with the tether will be measured.

The technology is based on the electrostatic interaction between the electric field generated by the satellite and the high-speed particles being ejected from the Sun.  A spacecraft utilizing this method would first deploy a set of electrically charged wires, which allow to generate an electric field over a large area. This area effectively forms a “sail” that can be pushed by the charged particles by being diverted by it and therefore transferring momentum to the craft.

The team also aim to capture images of Estonia for outreach purposes.

Continue reading →

Mar 15 2013

TeikyoSat-3 – Slime Mold from Space

Dictyostelium discoideum - Slime Mold - Image credit Freien Universität Berlin

Dictyostelium discoideum – Slime Mold – Image credit Freien Universität Berlin

Never before have images of Slime Mold growth been transmitted from space using amateur radio but students from Teikyo University plan to do just that with their TeikyoSat-3 satellite.

The TeikyoSat-3 team say “A slime mold is a microbe without a brain, its ecology has been studied by many research institutions with the expectation of applying the behavior of slime molds to network traffic and information technology. Our micro satellite, TeikyoSat-3, takes a picture of the growth process of the slime mold, dictyostelium discoideum, in space, and then transmits the pictures to Earth using amateur radio.”

Closer to the launch date they hope to release information to enable radio amateurs to receive the pictures of the slime mold directly from the satellite.

Pictures will also be released via the web which will enable people to identify the difference in motion of the slime mold in space and on the ground.

TeikyoSat-3 plans to have a 100 mW CW telemetry beacon and a 800 mW 1200 bps AFSK image data downlink on 437.450 MHz. More information is available from http://club.uccl.teikyo-u.ac.jp/~space_system_society/

It is planned to launch TeikyoSat-3 into a 400km 65 degree orbit on a Japanese H-IIA launch vehicle. While the TeikyoSat-3 website appears to indicate a 2013 launch the Wiki page 2014_in_spaceflight lists it as being on the same H-IIA flight as GPM-Core, STARS-II, KSAT2, OPUSAT, Invader and ITF-1 in June 2014.

TeikyoSat-3 site in Google English http://tinyurl.com/TeikyoSat

For further information on Japanese satellites with amateur radio payloads that are being built see
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/jaxa_gpm.htm
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hamradio/je9pel/jaxalos2.htm

Mar 15 2013

Jules Thomson G8PJL – Silent Key

It is with great sadness that I must record the passing of Jules Thomson G8PJL who passed away at home on March 8, 2013, after a long battle against cancer.

Jules was AMSAT-UK Honorary Treasurer since volunteering for the post in July 2008. He also served on the committee since that time. Sadly in the months before his passing, his health deteriorated to such an extent that at the end of last year, he felt he could no longer continue with the Hon Treasurer’s duties.

Jules was born in London in 1938, and studied natural sciences and engineering at Oxford before joining the Royal Air Force. After leaving the RAF, he became a councillor and eventually Chairman of South Oxfordshire District Council.

Jules was a founder member of the Sonning Common branch of the Green Gym movement. Members of Green Gym’s meet regularly to promote fitness, health and wellbeing by undertaking conservation activities such as tree planting, hedge laying, fences, gateways, etc. Jules held various positions in the group including secretary and chairman.

Jules was a fervent supporter of AMSAT and a member of AMSAT-UK for many years. He was particularly interested in and supportive of our FUNcube project, and talked about it with his family and non radio friends a great deal. Towards the end of his life, he mentioned more than once that he would be very sad to miss the launch!

Jules leaves a widow, Margaret, and two sons Alex and Guy, to whom we send our deepest condolences.

RIP Jules

Jim Heck G3WGM
Hon Sec AMSAT-UK